UK PM Johnson says COVID inquiry not a good use of resources while hospitals under pressure

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will learn lessons from its COVID-19 response but it is not be a good use of resources to have an inquiry while the National Health Service (NHS) is under strain from a winter wave of infections, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

"The NHS is under unprecedented pressure (and) the entire British state is trying to fight COVID to roll out the biggest vaccination programme in the history of our country," Johnson told lawmakers.

"The idea that we should now concentrate ... vast state resources to an inquiry now, in the middle of the pandemic, does not seem sensible to me ... But of course we will learn lessons in due course."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; writing by Alistair Smout)